Comment by moritzwarhier

As a Western German myself (who doesn't vote AfD), I'm inclined to agree.

Division and looking down on people, especially using attributes like "braindead", is arrogant and also just adds to the political capital of the far right.

Things that are not direct calls to violence or tearing down democracy must be acceptable parts of the discussion. And calling people who have opinions you consider hostile or wrong "stupid" has never helped anyone. Even when these opinions already cross the line of what's acceptable or are really "stupid" in your best-faith interpretation.

The Ossi/Wessi thing is especially problematic to bring up I feel. Also, the German East has been attracting industry and science facilities for quite a long time. And parts of Western Germany still seem to have issues with losing their perceived cultural hegemony.

But this process should be welcome to anyone who honestly wants a united Germany state.

Sowing division by looking down on the "former DDR" is a poison to democracy, just like yearning for autocracy.

The term "former DDR" is only recently going out of style in Western Germany, and that already says a lot.

Looking down on the AFD is understandable when you detest right-wing ideology, but it is no more helpful than laughing about people who were nostalgic about parts of the former DDR.

Adding arrogant arguments about wealth, the economy or cosmopolitanism will only increase this division and also the success of the AFD in the West.

For example, rejecting to celebrate and awe at cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism is not "Nazi".

That being said, yes, there are violent Nazis in Germany, many but not only in Eastern Germany.

Pointing fingers at only this problem just further sows division though, and it should also be clear that the far right that is active in the East is not a seperate entity from the far right in Western Germany.

Some regions in Western Germany also have strong far right hegemony, or are shifting to it, especially the poorer regions.

Sowing division about wealth and relating it to xenophobia is not helpful in increasing tolerance or decreasing frustration of working people.

And there is a shrinking part of the German left that ostentatiously is about human values, but has an ambivalent relationship towards capitalism, while rejecting any and all remotely critical sentiments regarding immigration. Often, even rejecting the German state: considering themselves leftists, but at the same time being deeply intertwined with the dominant cultural and political currents, and often enjoying a lot of wealth.

The arrogance of this "wealthy liberal establishment" as an issue is not much different from what helped Trump get elected, I feel.

The contradictory combination of being anti-right, pro-immigration, demanding of material wealth and at the same time claiming the moral arrogance of being on the morally "good" side will not slow down the decline of the left party of the political spectrum.